Callaway man finds patience key to his craft

By SCOTT CARROLL / The News Herald

Published: Monday, September 30, 2013 at 04:08 PM.

At first, Bush’s mother wouldn’t allow him to use knives, so he began carving with pieces of broken glass, making small cars and boats like the one he found in his yard. In the eighth grade, Bush gave his sister a small, hand-carved toilet before she underwent surgery — an odd gift, he now says, but a heartfelt one.

Now, Bush has a white beard, and his forearms and hands have become muscular from decades of carving. He makes two to three pieces per week, and he said there’s “no possible way” to tally the number of pieces he’s carved over the years. Dozens are on display in cabinets and shelves inside his home.

But as skilled as Bush has become, and as steady as his hands are, mistakes do happen. Thursday, he wore a handmade chainmail glove to protect his thumb from any errant scrapes or scratches with his knife. On 19 separate occasions over the years, Bush said, he’s cut himself badly enough to require stitches. And sometimes he’ll accidentally carve through a piece and have to start over, though Bush does not waste the material.

“I repurpose everything,” he said, noting his work shed was hand-built using pieces of salvaged wood from Hurricane Opal.

Bush said carving is a way to relieve stress and a “way that I express myself.”

In an age where many people are glued to their smartphones, computers or televisions most of the day, Bush said he finds peace in his old world skills.

“I think it’s a shame that we are not teaching these skills to our kids,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I go to festivals and things and actually demonstrate what I do, because I’m hoping some kid will say, ‘Hey, show me how to do that.’ If kids don’t learn this, it’s going to get lost. It’s going to be gone forever.”

CALLAWAY — Carl Bush sat hunched over the desk in his work shed Thursday, carefully carving into a block of soap stone with a utility knife. Flake after flake, grain after grain, a smoking pipe shaped as a spider slowly began taking shape. Power tools are faster, he said, but they don’t allow the same level of detail and are harder to control.

“I’d show you the finished product,” Bush said, “but you’ll have to wait all afternoon. It takes hours.”

Bush, 61, has been hand-carving figurines, jewelry and decorations of stone, shale, wood, clamshell and other materials for more than 40 years. He sells and trades the pieces at area art shows and has won several prizes at the Marianna Arts Festival for his work. Recently, he showcased several of his animal statuettes and demonstrated wood-carving at the recent Animal Fest at the Bay County Fairgrounds.

Many of the pieces take more than 30 hours to complete, Bush said, making patience crucial. It’s a trait he developed over two decades in the Army, when he worked 24-hour shifts every other day.

“I had to kill a lot of time,” said Bush, who wore a camouflage bandana, boots and blue jeans Thursday at his shop. “I learned to do all kinds of things just to kill time. That’s where the patience comes from — 20 years in the Army — and I’ve carved just about all my life.”

As a child in Panama City, Bush’s parents couldn’t afford real toys, so he played with bricks and blocks of wood. While digging in his backyard one day, Bush discovered a small, hand-carved wooden sailboat.

“I don’t know who made it because I dug it up out of the ground. Well, that was the first real toy I ever had,” he said. “I looked at it and said, ‘I see how this is done.’ So from then on, it was, ‘OK, let me see if I can make something.’”

At first, Bush’s mother wouldn’t allow him to use knives, so he began carving with pieces of broken glass, making small cars and boats like the one he found in his yard. In the eighth grade, Bush gave his sister a small, hand-carved toilet before she underwent surgery — an odd gift, he now says, but a heartfelt one.

Now, Bush has a white beard, and his forearms and hands have become muscular from decades of carving. He makes two to three pieces per week, and he said there’s “no possible way” to tally the number of pieces he’s carved over the years. Dozens are on display in cabinets and shelves inside his home.

But as skilled as Bush has become, and as steady as his hands are, mistakes do happen. Thursday, he wore a handmade chainmail glove to protect his thumb from any errant scrapes or scratches with his knife. On 19 separate occasions over the years, Bush said, he’s cut himself badly enough to require stitches. And sometimes he’ll accidentally carve through a piece and have to start over, though Bush does not waste the material.

“I repurpose everything,” he said, noting his work shed was hand-built using pieces of salvaged wood from Hurricane Opal.

Bush said carving is a way to relieve stress and a “way that I express myself.”

In an age where many people are glued to their smartphones, computers or televisions most of the day, Bush said he finds peace in his old world skills.

“I think it’s a shame that we are not teaching these skills to our kids,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I go to festivals and things and actually demonstrate what I do, because I’m hoping some kid will say, ‘Hey, show me how to do that.’ If kids don’t learn this, it’s going to get lost. It’s going to be gone forever.”

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